


Memories from Thereafter

by WinchesterNimrod



Series: AU Drabbles [2]
Category: Train to Busan (2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Canon-Typical Violence, Everyone's fucked up, Gen, Murder, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Redemption, Revenge, Survivor Guilt, Time Travel Fix-It, Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-23
Updated: 2019-07-08
Packaged: 2019-10-15 00:51:46
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,036
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17519078
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WinchesterNimrod/pseuds/WinchesterNimrod
Summary: They remember the milky-white eyes, bulging veins, and the sounds of people being torn into like Christmas paper.They remember a day of horror.And somehow, they know they’re not alone.[Seok Woo, Sang Hwa, Yeong Guk and Jin Hee wake up a month before they die and decide to stop the apocalypse because f*ck that]





	1. Waking Up

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own ‘Train To Busan’
> 
> I’ve only watched this movie once [my heart and nervous system cannot take another viewing] so if I’ve missed anything please notify me. 
> 
> Also, a big ALSO, if I’ve misappropriated the Korean language/culture notify me AT ONCE so I can fix it.

.

 

A month before they’re supposed to die - bitten, bleeding, screaming and crying in ugly terror - they wake up in a cold sweat.

 

Wake up from a nightmare too real and too graphic for their simple-minded imagination.

 

They remember the milky-white eyes, bulging veins, and the sounds of people being torn into like Christmas paper.

 

They remember a day of horror.

 

And somehow, they know they’re not alone.

 

.

 

The first thing Seok Woo does after throwing up last night’s meal is check on Soo An.

 

He stumbles out of his bathroom, red eyed and throat too raw to scream.

 

He feels like he’s drunk on fear by the time the door to her bedroom opens and he peers inside.

 

It’s as if somebody holding him up decides to let go. Seok Woo slips down the doorframe, not daring to look away or blink as his eyes soak on her peaceful expression. He’s terrified that the moment he does, she’ll be gone.

 

And he’ll be back on that train cart.

 

.

 

Sang Hwa isn’t a man who cries.

 

His father never granted him the privilege to.

 

But Sang Hwa’s outlived his old man and so he allows himself to a heaving session of relentless emotion.

 

He ends up shaking and petrified to let go of his wife’s much smaller stomach.

 

Hands of dead strangers lingering on his skin. Scratching and clawing and biting him.

 

“Sang Hwa, Sang Hwa what’s wrong?”

 

.

 

Nobody’s home when Yeong Guk wakes up.

 

For a moment he’s almost thankful for having neglectful parents.

 

But after the shock dries off and memories repeat themselves over and over again on endless repeat –

 

Yeong Guk finds himself curled up in the corner of his dark bedroom wishing he had somebody there to hold him.

.

 

Across town Jin Hee sits under a stream of scalding shower water clothed in nothing but a singlet and underpants.

 

Her expression is vacant, eyes distant and mind suspended in horror.

 

She hugs her knees closer to her chest.

 

Unable to find it in herself to cry.

 

.

 

In a high-rise building apartment, Yong Seok equally stands under a showerhead and begins stripping. Tearing his clothes off in a frenxy and grabbing the soap bar and loofa.

 

That night he scrubs his skin until it turns raw.

 

“Clean clean clean clean _why aren’t I clean_?”

 

.

 

Four out of the five find each other in under a day.

 

It happens on instinct.

 

Out of a deep, burning hunger need to meet at Busan’s train station.

 

[nobody mentions how they almost didn’t go. How they almost didn’t step into a train]

 

[nobody mentions their panic attacks in a secluded train station bathroom minutes before departure]

 

Seok Woo spots Sang Hwa across Busan’s train platform as though they were the only people there.

 

Neither of them look as though they’ve slept, but the moment their eyes meet something in them relaxes. Their nerves dampen, but don’t release.

 

They’ve been through too much to allow themselves to be caught unawares again.

 

“You look like shit.” Sang Hwa grunts as he pulls Seok Woo down for a (though he’ll argue) teary hug.

 

“Screw you,” Seok Woo huffs, smile empty.

 

The air darkens when they part, both staring at each other in silent acknowledgement and agony – because this was their confirmation.

 

Then what they remember was real.

 

“What happened afterwards?” Sang Hwa asks as they sit at the end of the platform on a bench.

  
They’re waiting for the others.

 

And it terrifies them how they know they’ll come.

 

“Your wife,” Seok Woo says slowly, memory of that day chewing at his soul, “she made it along with Soo An.”

 

“You died for them,” Sang Hwa nods intuitively, “didn’t you?”

 

Seok Woo can’t fight the shiver of that sensation.

 

Falling.

  
The slow displacement of gravity as he tips forwards into nothingness.

 

He closes his eyes, suddenly afraid.

 

“Yes.”

 

“Thank you.”

 

“I’m sorry.”

 

They both know what for.

“Tch.” Sang Hwa shifts uncomfortably at his sudden confession. “There’s nothing to forgive.” In an afterthought he mutters, “Asshole.”

 

It brings a vacant, stunned chuckle out of him.

 

.

 

Neither of them noticed it before, they were too frenzied, too distracted and far too gone in fear to realize how young the kids were.

 

Jin Hee’s skinner than a child and unnervingly small in comparison to Yeong Guk. The boy escorts her over to them. Arm wrapped securely around her tiny shoulders, protective and determined to not let her go.

 

As they get closer both adults come to notice how she’s not all… _there_.

 

“Is she okay?”

 

Yeong Guk snorts. Face tired and eyes terribly old.

 

“Fuck, this is real then?” he asks instead of answers. Placing Jin Hee down next to Seok Woo and standing himself. “It really happened and Jin Hee and I aren’t just – aren’t just crazy?”

 

He’s desperate.

 

“I’m sorry,” Seok Woo says and watches.

 

Numb as the kid, a mere _teenager_ leans against a post. Breath hitching and expression torn.

 

“What, why? No. No _how_ is it possible?”

 

“Beats us,.” Sang Hwa shrugs and stands. Looking awkward as he grabs the kid by the arm and drags him forwards. Yeong Guk allows it like it wasn’t his own body. “Take my seat you look like you’re about to keel over any second.”

 

The kid giggles. And it makes Seok Woo wince at how unhinged it sounds

 

Nobody, he realizes, came out that day without consequence.

 

“It can’t be – I – Hyung, then that means I _died_. I - ”

 

Seok Woo and Sang Hwa glance at each other over Yeong Guk’s hunched body. The boy was shakily fiddling with the hem of his school shirt. Breathes coming in, in shutters as though he were fighting back tears.

 

(It doesn’t take a genius to figure out why he wasn’t wearing the baseball jacket)

 

“Whoa hey, kid. You don’t have to tell us anything,” Sang Hwa says in gentle understanding. Hand cupping the back of the kid’s neck.

 

Yeong Guk nods. Silent.

 

Sang Hwa tells him something with his eyes and Seok Woo feels suddenly out of reach.

 

He should be good at this, he tells himself - draping an arm around Yeong Guk.

 

He has a kid.

 

Yeong Guk leans into him.

  
Wet patches grow on his blue blazer.

 

Then why did this feel new to him?

 

.


	2. Truth

.

Truth

.

The air lay still and heavy on the streets of Busan. Clouds above swelling with promises of rain.

 

Sang Hwa leads the silent group through roads and alleys until they stop outside a large apartment complex.

 

A young doorman greets the largely built man in barely concealed surprise.

 

“We weren’t expecting you, sir.”

 

Thunder shudders ominously in the distance.

 

Sang Hwa makes a face, “Neither was I. Tell manager Kim I don’t want to be disturbed for the rest of the evening.”

 

“I shall, sir. Do you need any help with luggage…” one glance at the mismatched, empty-handed group gives him pause, “refreshments to be brought up?”

“No, everything’s fine.”

 

They enter into a large marble tiled reception, Sung Hwa giving a vacant greeting to the lady behind the desk till they reached the elevator.

 

“….You’re a landlord, then?” Seok Woo asks as they wait.

 

“Family business.”

 

“Aah.”

 

The elevator dings open and they pile in. Yeong Guk clutching Jin Hee even closer in the confined space.

 

.

 

Sang Hwa’s ‘apartment’, made up an entire floor and resembles an Ikea magazine.

 

Cold, empty, and dead.

 

In seconds the living room couch is filled with Yeong Guk and Jin Hee. Seok Woo takes the single chair opposite, glancing anxiously pass the crystal coffee table to Sang Hwa. The man leaned against the panel of tainted glass that made up the wall. As though challenging it to break and let him fall.

 

A crack of lightning.

 

Outside had started to pour.

 

Seok Woo looks down at his hands, surprised to see them trembling.

 

He makes a fist.

 

It was like everyone was waiting for the tide to blow in and be engulfed by water.

  
“How do we,” Yeong Guk flinches at the draw of attention. “How do we stop it?”

 

Seok Woo turns to gaze out at the rain.

 

“By finding what caused it in the first place,” Sang Hwa reasons. Voice edged with tension. “Think about what happened that day. Do any of you recall something important or unusual, a virus, sickness…”

 

Nails digging into flesh, Seok woo bows his head. Swallowing against the dryness of his throat. Listening to the irregular rhythm of raindrops hitting the glass.

 

_Pat-pat-pat, pat-pat_

 

Yeong Guk gives a short, bitter laugh, young face dragged from exhaustion. “Hyung, I was going to a baseball tournament not a pathology lecture.”

 

“ _Think_ ,” Sang Hwa stresses. “We’ve got thirty days until the fucking apocalypse that only _we_ know about.” He sighs, “There’s got to be something we know that can stop it. There’s got to be a reason why we’re here.”

  
Resting his head against Jin Hee’s hunched shoulder, the kid sighs. “Yeah, because two teenagers and two grown men watch science documentaries for fun.”

 

Sang Hwa shoots a curious look over to Seok Woo. “Do you?”

 

Seok Woo lets out a long sigh. “No, but...but I work for,” he clears the tension building in his throat, “I work for the people who do.”

 

_Pat-pat, pat-pat-pat_

Yeong Guk frowns, confused and oblivious that he was sitting across from the very person who covered up the chemical spillage and caused them all to die.

 

“You work for scientists?” Sang Hwa snorts, “No wonder you’re a stuffy jerk.”

  
“No,” Seok Woo shakes his head slowly. Heart leaping into his mouth and refusing to look up. To meet betrayal and disgust he deserves. “I work for the people who did this.”

 

_Pat-pat –_

 

Before Seok Woo can even manage an apology, Sang Hwa’s snatched him by the collar and a bright burst of pain shoots across his chin.

  

Jin Hee’s scream cuts through the air in a clap of thunder.

 

“Hyung!”                                                                                                        

  
He staggers, trying to collect himself only to topple over backwards onto the coffee table from another punch. Glass explodes on impact, stripes of pain slashing across his braced arms and back.

 

“Hyung, stop!”

 

“Thousands of people are dead because of shits like you,” Sang Hwa heaves. Through Seok Woo’s clouding vision he sees Yeong Guk dithering in front of him holding back the larger man by his arms. “Everyone,” Sang Hwa’s voice cracks. “The kid’s friends, my family, those children seated behind me. Biting into each other and _killing one another_ because of _your_ bosses.”

 

Behind him he could hear Jin Hee whimpering.

“It’s not his fault,” Yeong Guk pleads, glancing over his shoulder to Seok Woo. Frantic. Desperate. “It’s not, right?”

 

Seok Woo shuts his eyes, throbbing chin dropping against his chest. “There was a spillage from one of the laboratories and infected a nearby lake causing a mass…” he breathes through the tightness in his lungs, “A mass decay of animal life. I don’t know the exact details of what the chemicals were but they weren’t good.”

 

“Clearly,” Sang Hwa says derisively.

 

Seok Woo swallows, “If reporters, big officials got wind about how bad it was we’d be shut down. My career along with over three hundred people would be finished. My job is to make sure everything runs smoothly. So…” he smiles, crooked. “I handled it.”

 

“You swept it under the rug,” Sang Hwa’s spits. “You asshole, do you know how many people died because of that?”

 

“I do,” Seok Woo bites. Shoving down the part of him that just wanted to sit there and sob.

 

“Good,” Sang Hwa snarls, gently shoving Yeong Guk to the side. The kid stumbles, too shocked to stop him. Sang Hwa kneels down to Seok Woo’s level, “Remember," he demands. "Don’t ever forget the people you helped kill, because we’re gonna make sure none of that ever happens again. Okay? You’re gonna clean up the shit you’ve crapped and after that, we’re never gonna see each other again. Because if I ever catch your ugly mug, I won't be in the correct state of mind to care about Soo An's feelings." 

 

Seok Woo opens his eyes, meeting Sang Hwa’s raw, haunted gaze. “Okay.”

 

“Let’s get you stitched up, then.”

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Managed to get around to updating this ~ hope you all still rooting for this lol.


End file.
